Good Thursday 08

Well here I am again, Good Thursday. Well, now I’m confused. I had to read previous Good Thursday posts and hell, I am breaking a tradition here by actually writing my Good Thursday post on Thursday. I do actually mark Good Thursday by getting up to watch dawn break yet it seems my posts are written post. I could try to attach some symbolic significance to this day but Good Thursday is simply one day of the year I feel obliged to set my clock and witness the day break then commit to my blog to push start the process once again. That’s good.
I notice that my last post came from Thailand where I was to meet up with my daughter. Now it may seem that things stalled at this point but it was more a case of changing mediums. I did keep a fairly extensive journal of that trip but I did so in a written journal. I did this as I wanted to have something tangible to pass on to her, something that she could hold in her hands and read way down the track , something that had a direct link to the time we spent travelling around Thailand. It was enjoyable writing to the book with Rita regularly picking up the book and reading what and how I was recording our travel. It was all a rather old fashioned activity with stuck in bus, train, plane tickets, pamphlets, scribbling, drawings and just about anything I thought might decorate the book, ferry tickets, receipts from hotels and so on. I can see the dog eared book sitting on a table just a meter or so away from where I sit now writing this entry on my laptop. I may scan it at sometime and post it to this blog to fill in the gap.
Speaking of gaps, there is certainly a few in this blog but as you may appreciate time does stand still in the ‘real world’ or perhaps it would be better titled the ‘everyday world’. I have always found it rather interesting how when I travel I have this amazing ability to remember detail. Not every last insignificant detail but most details about where I went and how long I stayed, how I traveled, what the weather was like, many of the meals I had and so forth. Compare this to the everyday world where if I was asked what I did six months ago I’d probably struggle to remember anything other than a few events. Maybe that explains the addiction for travel, an ability to enter a more lucid world where everyday seems to have meaning if only to find a place in your conscious world.
Back in the everyday world I am still in the same place I was twelve months ago in Leura in the Blue Mountains, Australia. Not much has changed here except we temporarily fostering Clancy, a shaggy middle aged, over weight, slightly lazy dog who spends most of his time eating, shitting and laying around. Perhaps I share some similarities? Anyway, I have temporarily taken leave of absence from my Teaching degree and now gone back to my IT course which, to be honest, I find more enjoyable and stimulating. Maybe I should have done a degree in vacillation and I would have passed now with honors!
Anyway, Good Thursday generally comes with new plans for me. I think I have mentioned my desire to head north for winter. Well, that would be my ultimate dream, being able to head north of the equator during the winter months down in oz and return home in late spring like a migratory bird coming home to roust. I have managed it the last two years but this year my plans are a little truncated. I am planning to head off to Vietnam and China during the middle of the year but this time only for five weeks. Yes, I am going on a boys own adventure. I am heading to Vietnam with my partner Amanda and spending two weeks with her then parting ways after traveling to Hanoi by train from Ho Chi Min city where she will fly home and I climb on another train for Beijing… or, maybe I’ll jus turn left and head for Tibet. I believe that is a great place for a holiday at the moment!